The British Commonwealth, or Commonwealth of nations, is made up of the UK and its dependencies, sovereign states (independent states) that were formerly ruled by the UK as British colonies of the British Empire (except Mozambique and Rwanda) and lastly associated states (states with full domestic or internal government but whose defence and foreign affairs or external relations are governed by the United Kingdom). All give allegiance to the British Crown, which makes the British monarch head of the member states.
Commonwealth countries are present on all continents and in all oceans. Their sizes and populations are extremely variable, from India with a 1 billion plus inhabitants to Tuvalu and Nauru with only 11,000 each. Their wealth is also very diverse, from Australia, Canada, Singapore or the UK among the richest, to Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Tanzania being the poorest. There is a total population of more than 2.4 billion in the Commonwealth.
According to the Secretariat of the Commonwealth, its role is "consulting and co-operation in the common interests of its peoples as well as in the promotion of international understanding and world peace". It aims at providing member countries with support in their development.
The 1926 Imperial Conference defined what status member countries would have within the British Commonwealth: "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any respect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." Subsequently in 1931, the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Westminster that made the declaration a law. The Commonwealth of Nations was officially created. The heads of the governments of Commonwealth countries issued in 1949 the London Declaration, which established the British monarch as the head of the Commonwealth rather than as the head of states. The Commonwealth Secretariat was created in London in 1965.
The Commonwealth has neither a constitution nor a charter. Member states must simply commit to the 1971 Singapore Declaration of shared principles of the Commonwealth of Nations: individual liberty, freedom from racism, peace, economic and social development, and international cooperation.
